Behind the War Between White House and Fox — WASHINGTON — Late last month, the senior White House adviser David Axelrod and Roger Ailes, chairman and chief executive of Fox News, met in an empty Palm steakhouse before it opened for the day, neutral ground secured for a secret tête-à-tê te.

W.H. attacks worry moderate Dems — A White House effort to undermine conservative critics is generating a backlash on Capitol Hill — and not just from Republicans. — “It's a mistake,” said Rep. Jason Altmire, a moderate Democrat from western Pennsylvania.

Deeds should've listened to us, senior Obama officials say — Top Democrats seek to shield Obama in case of election loss — Sensing that victory in the race for Virginia governor is slipping away, Democrats at the national level are laying the groundwork to blame a loss in a key swing state …

Charles Krauthammer on the White House vs. Fox News — The ‘post-partisan’ president makes an enemies list — Rahm Emanuel once sent a dead fish to a live pollster. Now he's put a horse's head in Roger Ailes's bed. — Not very subtle. And not very smart. Ailes doesn't scare easily.

Pelosi lacks votes for most sweeping public option — Speaker Nancy Pelosi counted votes Thursday night and determined she could not pass a “robust public option” — the most aggressive of the three forms of a public option House Democrats have been considering as part of a national overhaul of health care.

Senate Leader Takes Risk Pushing Public Insurance Plan — WASHINGTON — In pushing to include a government-run health insurance plan in the health care bill, the Senate majority leader, Harry Reid, is taking a calculated gamble that the 60 members of his caucus could support the plan if it included a way for states to opt out.

URGENT: House 12-15 Short on Medicare +5% Public Option — I am receiving new information tonight that the House DOES NOT have 218 “solid' yes votes for health care reform with a Medicare +5% public option. Representative John Larson's claim earlier today that the House had the votes appear …

Morning Fix: Palin Endorses Hoffman — Sarah Palin's decision to endorse the Conservative party candidate over the Republican nominee in a special House election in upstate New York is the latest example that the former Alaska governor's allegiance is to her conservative principles rather than the edicts of the party.

NY-23 race first test of tea party power — Tea party activists from across the nation are rallying around the House special election in upstate New York, viewing it as the first electoral test of the nascent conservative movement's political muscle. — Organizers up and down the East Coast report …

Top employees leave financial firms ahead of pay cuts — Grass is greener where bonuses are sky-high — NEW YORK — Even before the Obama administration formally tightened executive compensation at bailed-out companies, the prospect of pay cuts had led some top employees to depart.

Bay State liberals shun Barack Obama's visit — President Obama blows into the bluest state today facing a cold shoulder from once true-blue admirers, as gay rights activists, anti-war protesters and vexed environmentalists vow to picket a fund-raiser he's headlining for Gov. Deval Patrick - a marquee event that hasn't even sold out.

The Rachel Maddow Show: Indefensible — As Rachel reports, it looks like the vote taken by 30 Republicans to protect contractors rather than rape victims is not playing very well for them in their local papers. — Jamie Leigh Jones and her attorney joined Rachel to talk about what happened …

Media Matters coordinates campaign against ‘lethal’ Fox — An official at a Democratic-leaning organization sends on a memo the group Media Matters is circulating today to progressive groups, calling Fox “a lethal 24/7 partisan political operation” and rallying a coalition of groups to join the White House assault on the network.

A Lone Cleric Is Loudly Defying Iran's Leaders — RIYADH, Saudi Arabia — A short midlevel cleric, with a neat white beard and a clergyman's calm bearing, Mehdi Karroubi has watched from his home in Tehran in recent months as his aides have been arrested, his offices raided, his newspaper shut down.

Graydon AWOL as Vanity Fair cuts staff — VANITY Fair yesterday took some of the deepest staff cuts at Condé Nast, but Editor — Graydon Carterdidn't deliver the bad news himself. — Although Carter was said to have been at his restaurant, The Monkey Bar last night, he was a no-show at the office during the day.

Officials seize cocaine submarine — Guatemalan and US authorities have seized a makeshift submarine loaded with cocaine with a US street value of $200m (£120m). — The submarine, which had 10 tonnes of cocaine on board, was arrested by the coast guard some 280km (175 miles) off Guatemala's Pacific coast.

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